WHO Report: Tobacco Use is Declining Worldwide

A newly released WHO report has indicated that while non-surprisingly countries in southeast Asia still have the world’s highest rates of tobacco use, the use of traditional tobacco products has finally started declining worldwide.

The WHO estimates the number of male tobacco smokers to decline by over 1 million in 2020 and by 5 million by 2025.

Head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that four out of five tobacco users globally are men, therefore declines among males “mark a turning point in the fight against tobacco”.

Previous reports had already indicated drops in smoking rates amongst both males and females, however these were not considered significant enough to offset the growth in world population. While the number of female users has dropped substantially since 2000, the numbers amongst males remained stable. Thankfully, this appears to have changed last year, and the WHO now estimates the number of male smokers to decline by over 1 million in 2020 and by 5 million by 2025.

Report on e-cig use to be released soon

The new report covers a number of tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco. The agency did not take into account the use of electronic devices. To this effect WHO officials said they plan to release a report on e-cigarette use in the coming months